"Trouble, you never got around to poking the Sharing with a stick, did you?"

He shakes his head. "Never did."

"Does this information make it likely that you will decide to?"

He glances at the last known location of Andi's sketch and quirks a wry smile. "Maybe."

"For whatever reason, the Sharing Aliens aren't public and may have pod-person capabilities, I would be very gratified if from this point on none of us made a move without checking in with at least one other of us."

"...What's a pod person?"

"It's a movie reference, but the general idea is that they can convincingly replace - or maybe possess or mind-control or something - people. Such as possibly Charlie."

"Mind control." He shivers. "Second thought, maybe I won't go. No matter how much I wanna give that alien a hug."

"I doubt they can do it indiscriminately. And this is if they can do it at all, which is not guaranteed - it just explains Charlie way too neatly. They're probably limited in resources, or maybe range-limited so they have to balance inconspicuousness with collecting people to - pod. Which would be a damn good reason to have a The Sharing, wouldn't it."

"Creeeeepy," says Trouble, shivering again.

"The Sharing could also just be an alien-allied cult, we can't lean on any of these guesses," says Bella, scribbling furiously. "Or the owner of this particular bookstore could be connected to both things independently - or could be an innocent, albeit Sharing-affiliated, dupe, whose store is being used unbeknownst - we'd need more data to know. Besides, Ethan, your parents are acting the same, right?"

"Yeah," says Ethan, "but acting the same means they don't bloody talk to me, they could be recruiting everyyone they pass on the street and I wouldn't have a clue. About the only way I'd know if they'd been replaced by alien clones is if they started taking an interest in my life."

"Do you think our real dad is dead or something?" whispers Andi.

"Tech industry," says Ethan. "Dad's a programmer; Mum's an engineer."

Trouble shakes his head.

"And a bookstore owner. Okay, maybe they aren't being selective, or very selective - that still means we can't necessarily assume politicians or law enforcement or whatever are alien-free."

"No kidding," says Trouble.

"Or Sharing members are not pod people at all. Or one of the key observations is mistaken or incomplete. God damn."

"The pod people explain that media footprint so well, though," says Ethan. "I mean, brainwashing only goes so far."

"Yes. It explains that too. I don't think there are any observations we have made that alien pod people can't explain."

"Now that's not something you hear every day," says Trouble.

Trouble shrugs and eats with no noticeable hesitation.